First Planted Tank

This is a discussion on First Planted Tank within the Beginner Freshwater Aquarium forums, part of the Freshwater Fish and Aquariums category; -->
So I just was given another 10 gallon tank (to my girlfriends dismay, I guess there is to much water in the house :p) ...

So I just was given another 10 gallon tank (to my girlfriends dismay, I guess there is to much water in the house :p) So I was sorta interested in doing a small planted tank and have no idea where to even start hoping to get some info from the users here as I'm doing my research.

So I just was given another 10 gallon tank (to my girlfriends dismay, I guess there is to much water in the house :p) So I was sorta interested in doing a small planted tank and have no idea where to even start hoping to get some info from the users here as I'm doing my research.

what kind of lighting are you going to have? that will narrow down the kind of plants you can keep quite a lot. also, do you have a substrate in mind or are you waiting for suggestions?

Sorta waiting on suggestions, but I was hoping to go with a fine gravel since that is what I have here for it now, and it will keep down on the costs. I hope not to have to spend to much money

lol fair enough i can relate to that :P if you have some rocks or driftwood you can attach it to, get some java fern, i've had mine for like 4 years now and its sent out hundreds of runners and is my favorite plant :)

looks very interesting and also readily available I will have to try that one out. Thanks for the suggestion, hopefully I can get this project off the ground. The tanks is currently being used as of about 5 minutes ago to sex kenyi's (silly fish can't make my job easier :p)

they are a really tough hardy plant, i have mine in a tank with no lighting and always have...although i'm not reccomending you do the same they're supposed to be slow growers, but mine seems to grow pretty fast, although its probably slow compared to stem plants.
that's another thing i'd reccomend - elodea. unless you don't like plants floating around...tying down elodea is a nuisance and the plants tend to rot at the base if you do that because they send out roots from the stem to anchor themselves in the substrate.
good luck :)

Okay, do you have any experience with java moss? Is it compatible with the java fern?

yep it's compatible :) i dont have JAVA moss, i do have fontinalis moss which is very similar. i've heard java moss can get out of control and need clipping back. my moss is growing very slowly and turning slightly brown, probably because of the lack of light. i'm getting a light soon :)
when i first got my moss i tied it to rocks and stuff, but it kept slipping off so i left one piece just drifitng and a few pieces stayed attached. anyway i while ago i had to dismantle my decor to put new substrate in and i found the moss had completely detached from the rocks and stuff and was actually clinging to the wood it had been sitting next to, so i figured it must have been growing even in the low light...